


The Great Beyond

by Ashura



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M, Sirius Lives, post-resurrection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-11-12
Updated: 2004-11-12
Packaged: 2018-02-21 10:01:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2464217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashura/pseuds/Ashura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a cold day, even inside Hogwarts' draughty corridors, and Remus thinks it's probably time to sew a new lining in his worn robes again. He reaches his room, steeling himself for a moment for the inevitable upheaval of his insides every time he sees Sirius still there. It is something he doesn't think about too much, even on a purely intellectual level, because-well. Some things take getting used to. And miracles cannot be overthought. (Archiving some ancient HP fics.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Great Beyond

**Author's Note:**

> First posted to LJ in 2004, back when songfics and RPGs were a thing (and sometimes a thing that mixed). Lyrics and title from REM (as usual), 'The Great Beyond,' which really did always seem like a perfect post-resurrection Sirius song. I always wanted to make this longer, in truth, but never did. A single moment, then, for nostalgia's sake.

_I´ve watched the stars fall silent from your eyes_  
 _All the sights that I have seen_  
 _I can´t believe that I believed I wished_  
 _That you could see_  
 _There´s a new planet in the solar system_  
 _There is nothing up my sleeve_

_I´m breaking through_  
 _I´m bending spoons_  
 _I´m keeping flowers in full bloom_  
 _I´m looking for answers from the great beyond_

It's a cold day, even inside Hogwarts' draughty corridors, and Remus thinks it's probably time to sew a new lining in his worn robes again. He reaches his room, steeling himself for a moment for the inevitable upheaval of his insides every time he sees Sirius still there. It is something he doesn't think about too much, even on a purely intellectual level, because-well. Some things take getting used to. And miracles cannot be overthought.

Sirius is standing near the window, his outline a little too stark, picking the petals off a poppy and dropping them one by one onto the floor. He looks at Remus and smiles, and it's like the sun coming out, warm and a little too bright. 'Moony! I missed you.'

'Did you really, Padfoot?' Remus asks mildly. It's becoming ritual, and so quickly.

'You know I did,' Sirius says, and that's the expected answer too. He folds himself onto the foot of the bed, letting the poppy fall.

Remus just nods. 'Would you like some tea, then?'

Sirius gestures lazily toward the desk, where a blue stone teapot sits amid scattered papers and haphazard towers of books. 'It's already made. I took most of the honey, though.'

'It's all right, I'm fine without.' Remus expected this much, too. Sirius has complaints, he's always too cold and things taste too bitter. Honey has become a scarce commodity since he returned to the world. Remus thinks it a small price, and stirs plain milk into his tea.

'I was thinking,' Sirius says, 'about something you said before.' Remus sinks onto the bed next to him, not quite touching. The space between them is unfathomable, sometimes, too far to bridge, like the distance between planets. Or the earth, and the brightest star in the sky.

'What was it,' Remus asks, 'that I said?'

'That we were like this.' Sirius reaches for his wand and draws too little flecks of light in the air, hovering close to his ear. 'And we were in the same place. And then, things happened. And years happened.' A flick of wrist, of wand-tip, and the light motes flee to opposite sides of the room. 'And now we're not.'

Remus nods, tea slowly going tepid in hsi cup. 'I did say that.' He hadn't really meant anything by it. It was illustration, and nothing more.

Sirius stands, faces him, fixes him with an earnest look. 'It isn't right,' he says, 'not really. Because I'm not over there.' He gestures toward one of the specks, which flickers as it flies back to him. It glitters, wheeling, and settles in orbit around Remus' shoulders.

'Don't you see?' Sirius asks. His voice is soft, his eyes very black. 'I'm wherever you are. You and Harry.'

'Sirius,' Remus begins, but does not know what he meant to say after that. The circling speck of light fizzes and explodes in a shatter of colourful sparks. One lands on Remus and singes his sleeve. Sirius looks sheepish.

'Still not quite used to the wand, yet.'

'I gathered.' Remus reaches for his hand, his wand-hand, wrapping around it gently, but doesn't look at him. It's one of those moments when he looks too bright, too real, and Remus has to look away.

'There's nothing you can do about the time,' he says, apologetic. 'It's done. But it's not...insurmountable.' The closest he comes, these days, to an admission of desire. It has been a long time since Remus allowed himself to want anything.

Sirius grins at him. 'I should hope not,' he says loftily. 'You know I'm worth waiting for.'

Remus remembers there are other ways to express desire.

And Sirius, who is very Real indeed, reminds him.


End file.
